Bessent Announces Iranian Airlines Shutdown Wednesday

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a CNBC interview on Monday, September 21, that starting Wednesday, September 23, Iranian airlines will effectively be locked out of international air travel. From that day on, no airport, fuel supplier or ticket agency anywhere in the world may do business with Iranian aircraft, and anyone who does will lose access to the dollar financial system.

“On September 23rd, all Iranian airlines, all Iranian airlines, will be shut down around the world,” Bessent told CNBC.

The measure does not target Tehran directly. It targets everyone outside Iran who provides services to Iranian aircraft, from ground handling on the tarmac to selling tickets. Bessent spelled out exactly what is now off limits.

“If they land, you cannot give them fuel, you cannot give them landing services, you cannot sell them tickets, or you will be cut off from the dollar system,” the US Treasury Secretary said.

The announcement builds on a step the US Treasury had already taken. On September 8, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) placed 36 targets tied to Iranian aviation on its sanctions list, including 27 Iranian airlines. The list covers national carrier Iran Air along with Mahan Air, Iran Aseman, Qeshm Air, Zagros, Taban, Kish and Iran Air Tour. Mahan Air has been under US sanctions since 2011, over alleged support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Reactions came in before the ban even took effect. Iraq announced on the evening of September 21 that it was suspending flights by Iranian airlines on the US sanctions list. Turkish Airlines said it was halting flights to Iran until March 2027. Mahan Air itself, according to Truthout, had already suspended its flights to Oman and Turkey even before Bessent’s announcement.

One question remains open: China, where US leverage over the financial system does not match its reach in the West. Mahan Air has been flying into Chinese airports for years, so according to MiGFlug, how closely Chinese fuel suppliers follow the US ban will decide whether Wednesday’s shutdown of Iranian air traffic ends up complete, or leaves some routes still running.

The new sanctions are part of a broader economic squeeze on Tehran amid the war that has run since late February, when a joint US Israeli strike killed Iran’s supreme leader along with several senior military commanders. Iran responded by closing the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global energy corridor, pushing world oil prices even higher. Bessent had already said the United States would hit Iran with an “economic D-Day” and cut it off financially altogether. This month’s targets, he said, include the energy, shipping, technology and gold sectors of Iran’s economy.

Whether Wednesday’s ban actually grounds every Iranian flight, or only the ones on routes where Washington holds the most leverage, will depend above all on how China responds to the new sanctions, since that is where US financial pressure is weakest.